Young Love, Young Regret
by sunne
Summary: It's 2045 and Hannah Potter doesn't want to return to Hogwarts. This is a QLFC practice round piece.
Author's Note: This is a bonus practice round. Prompt used - SEEKER: write about an ordinary day in the year 2045

Young Love, Young Regret

Kings Cross Station was bustling with activity. People crowded around on the platforms, making the train station extremely hot and unbearable. Between platform nine and ten, a woman and her daughter stood, arguing.

"Hannah, you're going to miss the train." Alice Potter pointed at the brick wall. "Just go. You don't have much time."

The girl, her short brown hair messy and unkempt, shuffled her feet.

Her mother propped her hand on her waist as she frowned down at the girl. "What is it?"

Hannah chewed on her thumbnail and avoided her mother's glare. "I'm not going back."

"What? This again?" The older witch sighed.

Hannah shot her mother a defiant glare. "I'm not."

"If this is about your O.W.L.s, then you have nothing to worry about." Her mother ran a hand through Hannah's hair and smiled. "Your father and I have always said that you have the brains of your Great-Auntie Hermione."

Hannah pulled away from her mother's caress. "It's not my O.W.L.s."

"Is it Potions?" Her mother tapped her foot and glanced at the wall. She checked her watch. The clock was ticking. Ten more minutes, and the barrier would be sealed.

"No. Potions is fine. I'm not nervous about Potions this year."

"Then what is it, because if you're late and miss the train, I'm not pulling the Ford Anglia out of storage again." Her mother frowned when she didn't get an immediate response. "This is ridiculous, Hannah."

Hannah folded her arms. She bit at her lip and studied the little cracks in the ground. Muggles crowded around her on all sides, and the stifling heat didn't make things any better. Sweat ran down the back of her neck and dampened the collar of her shirt. She scuffed her toe along one of the little cracks and tried to avoid thinking about Hogwarts. She'd rather attend Durmstrang than return to Hogwarts.

"I'm waiting."

Hannah looked up at her mother and felt tears well up in her eyes.

"I'm not going back, Mum. I can't."

Her mother pressed her lips together, her irritation growing. "And why can't you?"

Hannah closed her eyes and rubbed away a stray tear. " _He's_ going to be there."

The irritation and annoyance on her mother's face melted away. The older witch sighed. "Is this about _that boy_?"

"Don't call him 'that boy'."

"Well, what else am I supposed to call him?" She shook her head and looked up at the glass ceiling. "I thought we talked about this, Hannah." Dropping her gaze, she eyed her daughter. Her lips were pressed together in disapproval, but her dark eyes were kind. "You can't let one measly heartbreak affect you like this. You know you're stronger than that."

"I still love him." Hannah's voice was small, timid.

"You're _fifteen_.You barely even know what love is."

Hannah bristled at that, but her mother placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and said, "I remember what it was like to be fifteen and in love. It's like the whole world changes, and you're at the center of it. It's intense and exciting and scary all at once."

The younger girl nodded. "I just don't know if I can face him again..." The memory from the end of the previous year came to mind, and she tried to banish it from her thoughts.

His face twisted with anger, the hatred burning in his eyes-it still made her insides clench as if a Bludger had pummelled into her. Hannah had a lot of regrets from the previous year. She had made a lot of mistakes and had wished on several occasions that she had a time-turner like her Great-Aunt had.

"You can face anything you put your mind to," her mother said, pulling Hannah out of her misery. "You can face this boy and not let him get to you."

"It's not that." She looked up at her mother. "It was all my fault."

The older witch frowned. "If I remember correctly-"

"No, I lied about that."

"What do you mean you lied?" Anger welled up in the older woman's face as she recoiled, eyes widening in shock.

"I lied about what really happened," Hannah mumbled, staring at her feet. "I didn't break up with him because he was trying to go too fast." She hesitated, shifting from one foot to the other. She chanced a peek at her mother but looked away immediately after.

"What happened?"

"I did something stupid and now he won't talk to me. I tried to owl him over the summer, but he didn't owl back. Not even once."

"What did you do, Hannah?" Her mother sounded tired, resigned.

Hannah squeezed her eyes shut and bit at her lip. She couldn't say it. It was far too terrible. Her stomach did flip flops at the mere memory of it.

A hand settled on her back as her mother said gently, "Hannah?"

"I kissed somebody else," she said in a rush. "We were playing this Muggle game in the common room with a bottle where you spin it and whoever it lands on you have to kiss."

The older witch laughed.

Hannah opened her eyes and stared at her mother. "It's not funny," she managed in a strangled voice.

"Oh, Hannah," the woman replied with a smile.

"It landed on Edwin Boot," Hannah said in an attempt to make her mother understand the gravity of what she had done. "So I kissed him." Heat crawled up her face even as she said the dreaded words.

"And Rigel didn't like that?"

"Of course not!"

"Did you explain the game to him?"

"He didn't believe me when I said it was just a stupid game..."

"Was he there?"

"No." She sniffed. "Edwin went and boasted about it to him afterwards. I tried to tell him that it didn't mean anything, but we got into this _huge_ fight and-and he said he hated me." Her chest constricted with pain, her cheeks wet with tears. "He _hates_ me, Mum."

"Oh, my love." The older witch wrapped her arms around Hannah and pulled her close. "He has had an entire summer to cool off and let this issue settle. I would think that once you get back to school, he'll be willing to talk again."

"I don't think so," Hannah mumbled into her mother's chest. "He was really mad."

"It sounds like you might need to apologize to him."

"I did."

"It never hurts to try again."

"I don't even know if I want to see him." She rested her cheek against her mother's shoulder and closed her eyes.

Her mother shifted, and Hannah cracked an eye open to see her look up at the clock overhead. "We're out of time, sweetheart. The train is probably getting ready to pull out of the station. I know you don't want to see him and that you regret what happened, but sometimes you just have to face the difficult things in life. You're a Gryffindor, love. Show a little of that bravery you're so famous for." She smiled softly down at her daughter.

Hannah pulled away and wiped her eyes. "I guess I can try."

"That's my girl." Her mother took Hannah by the shoulders and pushed her towards the barrier between the two platforms. "Now, let's go."

A cool breeze rushed past Hannah's face as she passed through the brick wall to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. The Hogwarts Express waited on the tracks, ready to leave, with all her aunts and uncles a little way off, standing in a large group, as always, shouting and waving at her cousins hanging out the windows of the train.

"Oh, there you are!" Albus Severus Potter called as he came up to them and wrapped an arm around Hannah's shoulder. "What took you both so long? I was afraid you had gotten lost."

"Not lost," her mother said as she shot Hannah a knowing smile. "Just held up."

"Everything okay?"

"Fine, Daddy." Hannah gave her father a hug.

"Well, hurry. The Express won't wait." He gave her a gentle push, and with a hurried wave, Hannah ran forwards and boarded the train.

Students packed the hallways. She craned her neck, looking for her cousins, but instead of finding mops of red or black, she found a platinum-blond head and stormy grey eyes as Rigel watched her. Her heart skipped a beat in her chest. She stood among the mass of kids pushing past her, unable to break eye contact with him. Fear and regret rose from within her, sharp and painful.

Rigel smiled softly, almost hesitantly, at her.

Relief washed over her, making her feel dizzy. She forced herself to smile back. _He didn't hate her._ Rigel gave her small wave and then disappeared into the Prefects' car. Hannah felt like she could finally breath again. Down the corridor, Tommy Weasley stuck his head out into the hallway.

"Oi! Hannah-Banana! Are you going to just stand there? Get down here before your brother eats your share of the sweets!"

Hannah laughed. Maybe this year wouldn't be a disaster after all.


End file.
